Kafka sulla spiaggia

Kafka Tamura turns fifteen and leaves his father's house in Tokyo, determined to escape a prophecy that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother and sister. He ends up in a private library in Takamatsu, where he forms bonds with Oshima, the gentle assistant, and Miss Saeki, the director, who may hold the key to his past. Alongside him, an old man named Nakata, who understands cats, becomes involved in events he cannot explain. Murakami alternates the two stories, adding talking animals and odd rainfall.

Open it if you like layered, dreamlike novels in which music, books, and myth matter as much as plot. It is a book to finish and then discuss.

Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?